Glenowen’s Golden Jubilee: Funday has revived Glenowen’s legendary community spirit

As Derry’s Glenowen prepares to celebrate its 50th birthday with a fabulous funday, resident Ann Marie Wilson  reminisced about growing up there and their ambitious plans for the estate’s future.

“Joe and I grew up in Glenowen and we know what a great estate it is. Now we have bought our own homes and we are rearing our wanes here, we want to make sure our wanes have the same great childhood memories we have.”

These were the inspiring and heart-warming words of Ann Marie Wilson ( née Ball), who co-chairs the recently revived Glenowen Residents’ Committee along with Joe Blee.

Welcome to Glenowen.

Taking a wee break from the hectic Glenowen 50th birthday funday preparations, Ann Marie recalled the estate was designed by the late Fr Anthony Mulvey and was officially handed over on July 21, 1973.

“That is why we have organised the Funday for Saturday, July 22,” said Ann Marie, “and I cannot wait.”

Smiling, she said: “On the day, we will have face painters. One of our local residents is an artist and she has offered her services. Another resident, Lee McKinney, is a photographer so he is going to be our official photographer. We will have music provided by Mark Conaghan; Colly Kelly’s catering van; and a couple of ice cream vans. We also have bingo sorted, thanks to a resident who works for Pennyburn Bingo.

“We are also planning a mini sports day for the wanes in the morning and a wee talent show in the evening.

“The Mayor is coming along because Patricia [Logue] is one of the councillors for the area and would have attended a lot of our meetings. We have also invited Bishop McKeown or a representative from St Eugene’s Cathedral. We thought it would be nice to incorporate the Chapel back into Glenowen given its original links with Fr Mulvey.

“We will definitely be giving away lots of prizes too. EuroSpar, Paolo’s Pizza and The Tasty Reel up in the Creggan Country Park, and many other people have been very generous in donating prizes towards some of the activities we are planning during the day,” said Ann Marie who praised the local businesses for giving back to the communities who support them.

Ann Marie was also quick to acknowledge St Cecilia’s College which has kindly donated tables and chairs for the Funday.

She is also liaising with Apex [Housing Association], which has responsibility for the estate, to try and track down the official, first Glenowen resident.

“We are going to do a wee presentation,” said Ann Marie, who thanked Apex for donating £500 towards the Funday.

“The Funday is going to take place in the square behind the shop, which is central, off the main road and has grassed areas for the bouncy castles, and, hopefully, a tuck shop,” said Ann Marie, who admitted she was a bit “stressed out”.

“I am just hoping it will all come good on the day. Joe and I are really excited. We did a street collection and were overwhelmed by the generosity of the residents. We also received a sizable donation from the McGill family in memory of their father who passed away recently. If Mr McGill was still here, he would have been in the middle of the Funday.

The late Colum McGill, Glenowen Stalwart, with his family.

“His son runs Rath Mor Warriors Kickboxing Club and all the wanes go to it. They are going to do  a wee kickboxing demonstration as well.”

Ann Marie is born, bred and buttered Glenowen.

“My granny and granda, Patsy and Eddie Ball, lived in 180, Glenowen. My daddy’s granda lived in a flat here too, number 46. One of his sisters lived in number 42, another lived in number 36, and his brother used to live in Number 5. My mammy and daddy, Selina and Damian Ball, lived in number 192,” said Ann Marie who was hoping the Funday would be a “big reunion”. “We would love to see former residents coming back for the day.”

Explaining her motivation for getting involved in the Residents’ Committee and the Funday, she said: “Joe founded the committee. His father and grandfather before him were both big activists within Glenowen when we were growing up, so he is following in their footsteps.

“I stepped in about a year ago to give him a hand because we really wanted to try and get Glenowen back.

“We both grew up in the street and we both knew the sense of community there was here when we were growing up and that had disappeared for a while.

“Apex didn’t seem to care about the street, compared to the new residential areas which were being built. So, Joe took a petition around all the doors two years ago, just after a car came down the back road and crashed into a wall here and knocked it down. 

“There have been a few issues, so Joe said, ‘We need to get together as a community and tackle Apex and the Council and get the street’s health and safety standards back up to scratch’. I agreed to co-chair the committee with him.

“We have been going from strength-to strength. The Council has set up a Glenowen Task Force which consists of all of the stakeholders in Glenowen, including Apex, Council, the Department for Infrastructure, Derry Housing, Firmus and Northern Ireland Water,” said Ann Marie. 

Glenowen under construction.

“It is a work in progress,” said Ann Marie. “We are seeing baby steps. Last year, during the grass-cutting season, they came and they dug away all of the kerbs and made the place really, clean and tidy.

“We were also able to get additional grit drops because Glenowen is an absolute nightmare in the winter. We also successfully lobbied for new street signage showing the house number, under essential health and safety measures. Glenowen goes in a spiral and for emergency services coming into the estate, it is very difficult to navigate. There have been a few new street lights put up.

“We have also catalogued different structures, walls, steps, and handrails, because a lot of them have been up 50 years, and have never been maintained. In addition, a lot of the walls are crumbling and are no  longer fit for purpose and accessibility to houses is shocking.

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The Committee is also pushing to try and make the street safe for the wanes to play in. There are about 100 wanes in the street, babies to teenagers, and there is nothing at all for them. I have two daughters and if they want to go to a park they either have to go to Brooke Park or up to Bishop’s Field.

Glenowen has been forgotten about. This is what our fight is and this is what I am bringing to the Task Force meetings,” said a determined Ann Marie.

During the Funday, Glenowen will also be remembering all of its absent friends and residents, in particular the members of the McCauley who died in a house fire in 1997 and the five residents lost to covid, three in six short weeks.